Bip making creative use of screen elements here.
Also, Patreon readers, I love and deeply appreciate you, but I've had to delete a couple comments now that straight up say events that happen next. If you wanna talk about spoilers that's what the Patreon-linked Discord server is for.
Transcript
Talita: Uh. No??
She launches into a nerd rant, listing off problems on her fingers. The dialog text appears on a giant piece of notebook paper behind her, with the lower lines partially obscured.
Talita: First of all, deconstruction is a completely different activity than fabrication and refurbishment. The equipment we have here is designed to rip heavy machinery apart, not delicately piece together anything spaceworthy. And there's a LOT of specialized work we would need to do to get your ship running safely. Craft like yours are made in microgravity and not intended to leave it. Now that it's been grounded, you'd have to check the entire ship for weight strain damage to make sure the structural spine doesn't bend in half the second it gets pulled off the tracks by the sky hook. Additionally, the amount of damage to the Whipple shielding and other exterior surfaces would require extensive patching or flat out replacement, but we lack comprehensive fabrication workshops and the only available prefabricated material for that here has been abraded by regolith for decades and isn't up to any reasonable standard for launch safety. And that's not even starting on the INTERIOR… forgetting the damage to the habitat capsule, you’d have to check the fuel tanks and power plants for catastrophic leakage, or you’re going to turn into a radioactive fireball as soon as you fire up your primary thrusters. And going back to
the hab, when that hole got poked—
Bip: Seems like you know a lot about repairing spacecraft.
Bip's avatar casually reclines on the numbers of the wall clock, which show Talita has been talking for 2 minutes. Talita's face bristles and she looks embarrassed about having been caught.
Talita: …Knowing is different from expertise. Besides, what do you want from me that you couldn’t just download?
Bip: Cooperation would be much more efficient. And digital information can’t really replace field experience. As a wise woman once said… Knowing is different from expertise.
88 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 96”
Scolopendra
Yeah, she’s definitely an aerospace engineer who actually works with integrated systems.
Source: am an aerospace engineer who emphasizes primary structure but does also work with systems integration.
Hubert
Good thing Bip talked to her early cuz when I was in IT I spent my extra time exclusively dismantling phones. Flip, not quantum, but still.
Hunter
I love Talita’s expression when she goes “Uh, no?”
I’ve probably had that expression on my face a lot when someone says something stupid that I know a lot about.
The Hollymonster
Bip, you sly dog! You got her infodumping!
Logan
X’D
Dilophoraptor
I absolutely love the inclusion of the transcript for Talita’s infodumping since she was standing in front of it
Archie
I really like the composition of Talita partially blocking out her own lecture and the lecture itself is on ruled line paper, really highlights the fact that Talita has really studied this topic in depth enough to correct a layman’s misconception in detail and wrote her thesis about this sort of thing.
liquorice-woofbeast
Absolutely loving the 2 minute infodump
Ruby
People are talking about reaction images from Talita’s faces but the first two panels combined make fir an excellent template for copypastas.
Redacted
Now I really wanna edit the Bee Movie script into the second panel
Tye
I would do it, but I don’t know if Jay is cool with their art being written over like that. I also think it would be very funny… but not if the author wouldn’t.
Tye
IT IS DONE (i got permission) https://www.tumblr.com/enbabe/767331062483468288/please-read-runaway-to-the-stars
1d4Nadg
Can we talk about the way Talita counts on her hand? Folding her second thumb under the others is so cute. Of course she would do that, but it’s so cute nonetheless
$ilverspoon
cheeky bip
joey
Reading the transcript; what’s Whipple shielding?
Phasma Felis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield !
joey
Ah, thank you!
Martin
Talita got interest-sniped lol
…Bip’s very good at persuasion.
samkee00
bip clock pinup calendar when
wingedhorror
YES
JoB
Bip clock *period* (wall or app) when … ? 😉
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/anime-clock-switch/
Doof
I wish the number changed while they lean on the 6 and their avatar falls to the bottom of the screen.
theplushfrog
I was literally waiting for them to do that, because it seems like a Bip thing to do.
zaratustra
How to bait an engineer: Pretend their job is easy.
Arcstone
Can we please please have all that text but without talita in front of it and the fade-out on the bottom?
I wish to read the whoke thing.
TotallySomebody
It’s in the transcript!
Arcstone
Oh.
Well alright then.
Thanks.
Phasma Felis
God, I love good technobabble.
Hyratel
It’s not even technobabble! Everything in that writeup is valid in the current day. The same spiel would apply if you were talking about the ISS
cain
I wanted to ask the same. Jay’s a step ahead of us haha
40
I adore Talita doing very human gestures with her wacky little hands,
HAL9000
god i can imagine the insurance and paperwork nightmare getting this thing airborne… spaceborne??… would take. i hope talita fixes it in two pages and then theres like five chapters dedicated just to filling in forms lmao
Tyrone the Miner
I see what you done there Bip! Talking about women “knowing and Expertise” (experience) while
sensually caressing that number “Six”…..Mkay! =)
Adrienne
interesting perspective you have there Tyrone
Quinn
Something very special about Bip immediately and consistently referring to Talita as a woman while she’s been experiencing so much degendering from the temps… I know this got addressed already in-comic but its lovely and a nice contrast that I can only assume will make Bip’s offer even more tempting.
cain
Yes!! Bip treats Talita like a person (and expert) worthy of respect, which is such a stark contrast from her current coworkers.
Translunary_Animus
New Talita reaction image spotted (also her massive nerd rant is perfect)
Apollo235
First panel or third panel?
Translunary_Animus
3rd
Ruby
Both
JoB
> the amount of damage to the Whipple shielding and other exterior surfaces would require extensive patching or flat out replacement, but we lack comprehensive fabrication workshops and the only available prefabricated material for that here has been abraded by regolith for decades and isn’t up to any reasonable standard for launch safety.
Well, time to make a new Whipple shield OUT OF (compacted) regolith, then. Or at least a new front cover for the damaged one. After all, regolith has the “take high-speed hits and fragment in the process” role down pat, and at least the launch loop shouldn’t care about the extra weight.
(… no, I don’t have any ideas to get around the *other* issues. Guess we’ll still have to get the pro convinced to join the band(it)wagon. 😉 )
Spinland
Animation opportunity: that 6 becomes a 7 while Bip’s leaning on it like in the last frame, and they stumble a bit and have to catch themself when the support vanishes.
creetur
Bip definitely knows how to be convincing, that’s for sure.
Talita’s “OUGH” face in the third panel says it all.
Mr. Skeleton
I’m curious to find out the logistics of being able to salvage the ship in the first place. Does Talita need to purchase the ship? What sort of insurance does one take out for fixing a wreck? Is this a Mary Ellen Carter situation? I’m dying to find out!
JoB
> Is this a Mary Ellen Carter situation?
Sounds more like a Yamato or Suyata to me. :-3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsUBRd1O2dU
Mr. Skeleton
But is the Runaway worth a quarter million a float and at the dock?
Varyon
I think the way this kind of thing normally works – although it may be different in this setting – is that the company in charge of the salvage yard would purchase the wreck from whoever currently owns it (considering the damage to the habitat module, probably either the crew’s next of kin or whoever recovered the wreck and made a salvage claim to it). For insurance, you can insure anything, so long as you can find someone to cover it (it’s essentially a formal bet/wager of sorts). If you’re talking about insuring it as a spacecraft once it’s spaceworthy again, that should certainly be an option (salvaged titles for automobiles are generally worth less, so an argument can be made for the vessel to cost less to insure… but the fact it has a track record of issues and is certainly no longer in mint condition means there may be a higher risk of more issues cropping up, which would increase the cost of insurance).
For Talita to gain ownership, she’d need to purchase it from the company. The price would likely be comparable to whatever they expected to make as profit off salvaging it (basically, selling price of the components minus the cost of disassembly – probably mostly in the form of wages, but maintenance and upkeep on equipment would factor in as well). She’d also then have to repair it off the clock using tools and materials she purchased herself (although the former she may be able to rent from the company). But I’m pretty certain Bip is wanting her to steal materials and use available equipment during work hours to fix him up, and then intends to simply leave under his own power (possibly with her and her friends on board as the new crew) without bothering to compensate the company (possibly hacking them so they no longer have any records of ownership, although that may be difficult if there’s any sort of hypernet or if they tend to sync up regularly with an existing internet). He’s a pirate, after all.
evileeyore
The ship does house someone’s ‘brain’ (servers) so once Bip is back in those servers and returned from the dead… possession is 9/10ths of the law so to speak.
Adrienne
Bip could run a master class in buttering up
jesting maniac
uh….. NO?????
most relatable sentence ever spoken i love her so much.
ArBe
Absolutely love Bip leaning on the digits of the clock, such a fun visual.
Claire
Xey are getting COZY with that six
JoB
[digit flips to a 7 and Bip pokes an eye on its pointy left]
Uh
For someone without a mouth, their tone oozes through the screen
Guest
Talita is so FUNNY
Howie
Oh they are definitely correctly gendering their way into Talita’s good graces. I love it lol. I also love Talita’s beautiful info dump
Bruce Mickelson
I think that it is high time that Talita GETS some hands-on expertise, and put that University degree to work.
RedCatStudio
Omg Bip, with the STELLAR dialogue! They know exactly what to say 😂
Claire
Like. A. Fiddle.
Quinn
Calling Talita a woman just after she got misgendered repeatedly and dehumanized by her coworkers… I’ll bet that’s gonna reflect in the next page
Effyis Biblos
They did it last page as well (which arguably contributed strongly to calming Talita down), so I don’t think there’s going to be an active reaction this time, but on a subconscious level I’m sure it’s pulling a lot of weight.
Lilac
ohhh bip might be my favorite charachter now actually from this page alone good lord so smug so witty so silly
Phlosioneer
Bip has some serious charm and charisma. No wonder they’re a conman.
Ossumsauce
Conputer :>
JoB
“That’s ‘AI’, if you please. As in, ‘Adorable I-Con’.”
Zidane
you go girl hit em with the “erm, actually…” i’ll cheer you on every time even though i don’t know the first thing about aerospace
Calcifer
I have no goddamn clue how on dirtball Talita and crew are going to repair and launch the runaway under everyone’s noses without getting caught. Talita not only points out not having the necessary machinery- what with all their jobs revolving around dismantlement- but it’s gonna be obvious as hell if a spacecraft important enough to get a ride on the launch loop suddenly starts getting repaired (or gets moved out of sight to get repaired in secret). I am super interested to see the shenanigans that get pulled in order to make this happen. Like, will they have to falsify some sort of paperwork that would justify repairing the ship and just lie long enough to get it off the ground? I can’t imagine the safety protocols would allow for Talita to sneak off to repair the thing either on or off her shift, right? Not to mention getting it back on the launch loop. I wonder what the plan is that will let them get away with this. Well, no use pretending like I know any sort of intricacies about the legalities and protocols of an extraterrestrial recycling plant. I’m super interested in seeing how this is gonna go down and exactly what kind of heist it’s going to be.
Also, it’s kinda funny to imagine the reactions of the others afterwards when they realize their soft spoken nerdy coworker just crimed her way out of there lmao.
Further note: I love Talita rambling on and showing exactly how smart she is.
Phlosioneer
Keep in mind, dirtball is running on a skeleton crew. There’s not actually many people to catch them. Also, their primary outdoor-security and operations person left, and talita has that job now. On that note, her crew is probably the only one that goes any amount of distance from the habitat, and all her workers are novices who wouldn’t notice the materials vanish or the ship change. Talita is also a tinkerer, so it wouldn’t be unusual for her to start building stuff. She built her eva suit and some parts of her living quarters. Finally, Bip can forge any video feeds, manifests, or reports necessary to maintain secrecy.
This can definitely happen with no one noticing. And no one would question her actions, she’s been 10+ years loyal and Mal raised her.
Phlosioneer
The launch loop may be a non-issue. The craft could probably power itself to orbit, or maybe have disposable boosters attached.
Calcifer
True, I imagine we started off this comic with Talita being promoted for that very reason. I was more thinking along the lines of it might be unusual for the supervisor to disappear from her crew for extended periods of time while on the job, and when she’s off the clock, it would be difficult to slip outside unnoticed. I would say if there isn’t anyone manning the airlock or in direct eyesight, you may be right about Bip being the solution to covering her tracks via the camera feed, but the problem is that bitch (the door) is HUGE. Makes quick exits a bit more iffy, so I’m thinking they’ll need an official excuse as to what she’s doing and why. But, however it ends up going, I’m excited to see some fun, heist-y rule breaking.
the Inmara
It’s possible that Bip could do a lot of the actual work while Talita advises them, when everyone else is asleep. Talita could just carve out a little time every day to have a planning session with Bip, then Bip could use the robotic rovers to do a lot of the work.
Of course, that might be a problem if the rovers don’t get enough recharge time. It’ll be interesting to see how the logistics of this play out regardless!
JoB
> it might be unusual for the supervisor to disappear from her crew for extended periods of time while on the job
As it happens, that posse of temps would be *elated* to have Talita out of their hair (but instead “off to noxler some more fitplaques”). They might not *survive* that for very long, but.
@Inmara
> It’s possible that Bip could do a lot of the actual work
Considering that Bip can only operate those large-wheeled vehicles and that you have to climb up a steep *stair* to even *get at* any part of the Runaway other than the lower two torch nozzles, I don’t think that that’s going to happen …